Reader

 I thought this would be one badge that I could do fairly easily back when I got my book in March 2022. In my childhood and teens I was an avid reader, and this continued into my 20s. Then I discovered satellite TV (thanks to my husband) and work took over, and after a glass or two of something in the evening, reading often got left out as I was too tired to read anything.

I have a collection of books which I have not read read, and am trying to get through them. This mission is not made easier by others - as my aunt periodically send me packages of books - the last time I went to see her, she had a bag of 8 books waiting for me (her house is crammed full of books - and I mean really crammed full…piles of books going up the stairs, shelves bowing under the weight of books in every room).

Anyway, this badge took me longer than 3 months to complete - and I was relieved when Charly said that the time frames are there to stop people whizzing through the badges - that the idea is to take your time over them (just as well with the Mixologist badge, as going through the at least 6 cocktails in one evening would be lethal - I have been a bit surprised at the number of measures going into each cocktail, and the cost of cocktails in bars makes a lot more sense to me now!).

Once again, I digress.  The books I read were: Terminal by Kathy Reichs (fiction), Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair (non-fiction), Agatha Christie An English Mystery by Laura Thompson (biography), Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (fiction), The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (non-fiction), How the Guides Won the War by Janie Hampton (non-fiction), The Ghost Fields by Eloy Griffith (fiction). The book club I took part in was the Rebel Book Club on Facebook. I didn’t manage to get to the Zoom meeting, but commented afterwards. Why did I not make the meeting? I suspect time pressures had a lot to do with it, and also the idea of zoom meetings seems fine until it gets to time for them - and then I can start to feel a bit worried about being part of a meeting where I don’t know anyone, and will I have anything useful to say.

One aspect of the book club that was a little difficult for me was the timescale. As I said earlier, I used to be an avid reader. However, once we had a TV in the bedroom, reading seemed to tail off a bit. We’ve not had a TV in the bedroom for over 15 years now, and I tend to read at night before settling down to sleep. And this is where reading The Power of Habit explain things: I read to help settle down and relax before going to sleep, and obviously I do this in bed. It really does help me to unwind, and if I’m going to sit and read I will often do it sat in bed, where I can be warm and comfortable. However, this soon leads to me feeling sleepy - and I can then end up having a nanny nap! The Power of Habit explains that the action of reading will get me the reward of falling asleep easily (in basic terms), so it really is no wonder that it takes me a lot longer to read books these days! This also suggests that it would be a good idea for me to find somewhere else to sit and read, if I want to really get on and read a book more quickly.

For the critiquing of a book review, I read a review of How the Guides Won the War, by Janie Hampton. The review can be found here. I agree with many points of the review - yes, the book does read like an advert for Girl Guiding - although anyone reading it today thinking that is what Guiding is currently like could easily be put off. The book gives details about how there were certain standards that needed to be met by the Guides for particular badges, and those standards seemed very high in comparison to how I remember my badgework (I was no slouch - I did the work and decided I wanted to achieve the Baden-Powell Trefoil in the very late 80’s - and did). There are many accounts from log books and personal recollections about the camping the Guides did during wartime, about how they kept up the meetings, and how those in the concentration camp in Chefoo managed to work towards badges and exams. Did I feel that the book skated over “sticky subjects to get on to the next act of Guiding heroism”? Truthfully, I didn’t feel that this was the case, but in all honesty - I was reading the book as a story, as tales of Guiding in days gone by - and I wasn’t reading it with a critical eye. The reviewer states “ A reasonable criticism might be that Scouting does rather get left out in the cold ” and while it is true that Scouting doesn’t get much of a mention,  I don’t consider it a criticism of the book - after all it is about how the Guides won the war. We hear a little about the Scouts - and learn about how Guiding started out. I think that the Scouts have got enough kudos currently - certainly helped by having Bear Grylls as Chief Scout (and as I’m writing about him, I still feel a bit aggrieved that he did not reply to me after I wrote to him about my dad being presented with the bar to the Silver Acorn while he was in the hospice - a ceremony that was arranged quite quickly after I made a seemingly ill-advised phone call - which turned out sort of okay in the end). The reviewer also says that the book contains no analysis of the causes of what happened - no details about why the war started - and I don’t think the book suffers for not including this information, as there are plenty of other resources for learning about the causes of WW2.

Review of a book: The Secret Lives of Colour, by Kassia St Clair

I was drawn to this book to start with due to the delicious hardback cover. Unfortunately, when I came to buy the book, there were no hardback editions in the shop, but the softback over is just as inviting. The book looks good - a colourful cover, and the edges of the pages are coloured too, which is an invitation to look inside and discover why the pages are coloured - what do they hold? The book starts with some science stuff - explanations about colour, the spectrum, and moves on to artists and their pigments and the politics of colour - all this as an introduction. The author states that they have tried to “provide something between a potted history and a character sketch for the 75 shades that have intrigued me the most” - in the paperback edition there are 76 shades as the shade Vantablack emerged. In my opinion, this is not a book that you can or should read in one sitting. Instead, it could be considered a reference book - one to dip into from time to time, or one one section read each day - so that the information about each shade can be read and digested and thought about (perhaps this is another reason why it has taken me more than 3 months to complete the Reader badge!). The different shade pages contain nuggets of information about different shades - learning the connection between Tyrian purple and sea snails, the difficulties and mistake of calling a shade of clothing ‘nude’, and how Baker-Miller pink has been used to curb aggression. The contents page reads like a menu written partly in a different language, as it contains shade names seldom heard (even for those of us who delighted in our 64 shade Crayola box - with all those lovely shade names on the paper around the crayons - the likes of burnt umber, periwinkle, raw sienna - although it seems that many of these have changed now): intrigue is stirred when seeing Isabelline, Gamboge, Orpiment, Minium, Madder, Celadon, Fallow to name a few. I look at the word Obsidian and I immediately think of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and the Obsidian Order.

The Secret Lives of Colour is certainly a book that will remain on my bookshelf - it is one that can be dipped into time and again. As a quilter I found it fascinating, especially as I had seen a quilt challenge based around the book (seen on Pat Sloan’s quilting blog, emails and Facebook page). I would highly recommend this book to artists - and I don’t mean just those who paint or draw, but to anyone who uses colour in whatever medium they use to create works of art.

And this concludes my Reader badge! And in completing this badge I have completed my fifth Wellness badge (already completed Diarist, Fitness, Good Habits, and Runner).